The tyres of vehicles need to be regularly replaced. Also, tyres on occasions suffer damage during use and, thus, need to be repaired or replaced.
To replace or repair a damaged tyre, the tyre generally needs to be dismounted from the wheel to which it is attached. For this, the wheel is removed from the axle of the vehicle. The tyre is then dismounted from the rim of the wheel, repaired and fitted again to the wheel rim. If the tyre cannot be repaired, a new tyre will be fitted to the wheel rim.
The dismounting and mounting of the wheel from the axle of the vehicle can be a cumbersome and dangerous. This is particularly so for wheels of relatively large size, such as wheels of mining equipment and vehicles used in the mining industry.
Also, detachment of the tyre from the rim of the wheel requires breaking the beads of the tyre for release of the tyre from the rim. The breaking of the bead is accomplished by inserting an end of a bead breaker between the tyre and the rim of the vehicle. This procedure may require application of a force of relatively large magnitude to insert the bead breaker between the tyre and the rim.
Also, tyre handling apparatus on occasions may need to operate in confined spaces such as an underground mine or tunnel.
It is against this background that the invention has been developed